In 84 AD the Britons who inhabited what is now northern Scotland decided to make a stand against the invading Roman forces, at a place Tacitus calls ‘Mons Graupius’. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. We don’t possess the farming and mineral wealth and the trade that would gives us value as forced labour. It seems to have escaped his attention until now that Scotland has developed a very different polity from England’s: ‘In its political culture and its powers to define what form that culture takes, Scotland is already so incomparably different from England that a form of separation is taking place in front of our eyes … Without doubt, insular, parochial England should pay more attention to a referendum that is definitely taking place instead of obsessing about one on Europe that might never be held.’  Richards points out that the traditional differences between the two countries have been accentuated because whereas Scotland’s political culture has remained very stable, England’s has shifted substantially, in favour of the market, privatisation and the small state – not only under the coalition government, as Richards implies, but under the previous Blair-Brown governments. So, one would think the SNP would have been force feeding us Calgacus. Under a woman's leadership the Brigantes were able to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not success ended in supineness, might have thrown off the yoke. The only historical source that features him is Tacitus' Agricola, which describes him as "the most distinguished for birth and valour among the chieftains". The Romans have no wives to fire them, no parents to shame them if they run away. Agr. Honest, uncensored, and hard-hitting articles. This may explain why Tacitus’s style, never less than cutting, seems to take on a specially sharp edge in this passage. Making concessions and being moderate isn’t going to save us from their tyranny. We Scots, Welsh, Britons should draw no distinctions between each other because to try to sever our ties is not only cruel and hurtful but goes against common sense. In order to secure himself a strong northern frontier, Agricola decided he must subdue the tribes of Scotland. Veyne, Woolf 55-60). 15.2-4). To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. Tacitus wrote a speech which he attributed to Calgacus, saying that Calgacus gave it in advance of the Battle of Mons Graupius. Having denounced in the second section of his speech the rapacity and ruthlessness of the Romans Calgacus goes on in the third to contrast the unity, commitment and determination of his Caledonians with the dubious condition of the enemy’s soldiers, out of their depth in the alien Highlands, motivated by fear rather than loyalty, and, most interestingly, undermined by their multinational and multicultural … About 10,000 of them were killed, he says, with losses of only 360 men on the Roman side. According to Tacitus, Calgacus (sometimes Calgacos or Galgacus) was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83 or 84. The words servitus (slavery) and libertas (freedom) recur throughout and form the foundation of Calgacus’s appeal to his army. Calgacus - Wikipedia. According to Tacitus, Calgacus (sometimes Calgacos or Galgacus) was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83 or 84. One first-century Roman commander, describing the area north of the Tay, exclaimed that it was where "the world and all created things come to an end. In peace the Romans are decadent: do you think they’ll show a manly spirit in war? I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed the importance of the Calgacus speech when discussing Scottish identity and independence. His conviction, shared by many other aristocrats, was that the empire represented a decline from the golden age of the Roman republic, and that the moral condition of the state and of the Roman people was perilous. Freedom is countered by slavishness, and this opposition provides a central structuring device (Lavan). To our strifes and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army, an army which, composed as it is of every variety of nations, is held together by success and will be broken up by disaster. Is the name given by Tacitus to the leader of the Caledonian confederacy at the battle against the Romans under Agricola at Mons Graupius in 83/4. The Romans, under Agricola, had marched into Northern Britain in order to quell the ‘rebellious’ tribes who lived there. Tacitus’ characterization of the women in Agricola’s family provides a baseline for his identification of domestic values. Tacitus’ concise depiction locates Roman women within a domestic sphere; however, family also provides motivation for Agricola’s public actions on at least two occasions. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace (ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant). Our goods and fortunes they collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. This paper argues the connection between servitude and humanitas is a manifestation of the interconnectedness of space, family life, and libertas celebrated by Tacitus’ Britons throughout the Agricola. Everything here – the forests, the coast, even the sky – looks alien to them. Calgacus  Whether you endure these for ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide. Our very hands and bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses. I write after the Scottish referendum and the Brexit result of Britain’s Euro referendum. 43.4; amantissima uxore, Agr. 43.4) survived Agricola and are encouraged to emulate his example (Agr. Calgacus appears only to give a speech inveighing against the evils of Rome and exhorting his followers to resist as last of the free Britons. We Caledonians are the greatest of all the Britons. We, though, are undivided and unconquered. Though opinion polls so far suggest that a ‘yes’ vote is unlikely in 2014, discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of independence cannot be avoided. 4.3), whose attention to Agricola’s education kept him from pursuing philosophy too deeply; Agricola’s wife is a woman of illustrious birth with whom he enjoyed a harmonious marriage (Agr. Calgacus’ defeat results in the destruction of families and homes: houses are abandoned or set on fire, wives and children murdered out of pity (Agr. But then we have a sovereign tribe, fighting against the European Tyranny, so if there were any UKIP in Scotland with more brains than a pink Ostrich, I would expect them to highlight the anti-“Europe” rhetoric. Is the name given by Tacitus to the leader of the Caledonian confederacy at the battle against the Romans under Agricola at Mons Graupius in 83/4. Abduction, massacre, plunder they misname ‘law and order’. Unearthing Gender and Antiquity, CFP: Translations of Aristotle’s Poetics ever since the XVI Century and the Forging of European Poetics, Fellowship: Center for Ballet and the Arts, CFP: (In)equity and Marginalization in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. As the Britons gather together to discuss their grievances, they bemoan the appropriation of their property and the enslavement of their children, and fear for their wives and parents (Agr. Tacitus says nothing about him except that he was ‘outstanding in bravery and of noble birth’: perhaps the only sure information he had about him was his name (the Celtic form Calgaich may mean ‘swordsman’). Regional and National History, View all related items in Oxford Reference », Search for: 'Calgacus' in Oxford Reference ». Andrew Marr recently made the point that the future of Scotland is a subject almost totally ignored in the rest of the UK. Calgacus has been read as a champion of Republican libertas (eg. Your contributions make this all possible. Few in number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which are all unfamiliar to them; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed, the Gods have delivered them into our hands. However, on the other hand Calgacus describes himself as a “Briton” and no where in Tacitus (or anywhere else) do we find support for the fictional idea of the “celts” in Britain. Our remoteness, a source of security to us, they find suspicious. Scots For Independence : Calgacus. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly a speech of Scottish independence and one that was echoed in the declaration of Arbroath and then the American declaration of independence.